gin blossom

gin blossom (plural gin blossoms)

1. (slang) Vascular rosacea caused or exacerbated by excessive consumption of alcohol.
   • 1993 November, “Naked City”, in Spy, page 26:

     "Red Monkey": a Hundi slur, originally an allusion to the gin-blossom-encrusted faces of British colonial administrators

   • 2010, Jeania Kimbrough, Van Diemen at 17, page 241:

     One man had a gin blossom nose and a huge gut, another piercing blue eyes set off by deep-set wrinkles.

   • 2019, Adam Dolgins, The Big Book of Rock & Roll Names, page 1994:

     What a gin blossom is literally — what it symbolizes, I suppose, is loss of control.

   • 2019, Laini Giles, Bathing Beauty:

     That bohunk bastard has the biggest gin blossom I've ever seen.

   • 2021, Ed Tarkington, The Fortunate Ones:

     Sunny couldn't possibly have thought my mother would be better off staying at Café Divorcée with nothing to show for it but gray roots and a gin blossom.

2. A female alcoholic.
   • 2003, Steven H. Propp, Beyond Heaven and Earth, page 600:

     She was an alcoholic old biddy, a "gin blossom”, who was venturing out on the streets past 10:00 PM alone because she had to get another bottle, to hold her over until morning, when she would probably go and get another bottle.

   • 2014, Suzanne Hayes, Loretta Nyhan, Empire Girls, page 159:

     Now, what do you say, my little gin blossom?

   • 2015, Michael Januska, Border City Blues 2-Book Bundle: Riverside Drive / Maiden Lane:

     Vera Maude had seen him in photos, the sweet little gin blossom standing next to the droopy old sourpuss.

3. A cocktail composed of gin and fruit juice (usually peach, apricot, orange, and/or lime).
   • 1961, Charles Beardsley, The Naked Hills: Some Tales of Afghanistan, page 212:

     Hastily she poured another gin blossom.

   • 2005, Steven F. Hayward, Greatness:

     Reagan, perhaps because of his father's severe alcoholism, was not much of drinker, preferring a weak gin blossom at the White House when the occasion called for coctails.

   • 2013, Ace Atkins, Devil's Garden:

     He pressed a gin blossom in Virginia's hand as she sat in a green chair, crossed her legs, and dialed the house phone.

   • 2018, Melanie Benjamin, The Girls in the Picture:

     If mother could see me now, I grinned as I sipped a gin blossom from a teacup and watched Mabel shake her pert little derriere to the accompaniment of a ukulele pounding out “When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam'.”

4. A metaphoric flower associated with heavy drinking.
   • 1869, Jenny's Geranium, page 64:

     "Well, I suppose you want a drop of gin for that thing?" she said. "Hand it over; I am very fond of flowers." "Specially gin blossoms," said the costermonger, in a rather loud whisper.

   • 1934, Mark Hellinger, The Ten Million:

     In the case of Mrs. Mollie Carroll and Randy Thomas, the flower of romance was a gin blossom.

   • 2003, Ian Philips, Satyriasis: Literotica 2, page 94:

     Instead, the City of Angels, that ever-metastasizing concrete gin blossom of on-ramps and off-ramps built over prehistoric tar pits, deflowered her.

   • 2010, Michael Kun, Corrections to my Memoirs:

     In 2003, the World Literature Forum was held in Budapest, Germany, a lovely, romantic seaside city that is perfectly suited for such a gathering, particularly in the spring with the gin blossoms are in full bloom.